What is Fantasy?

A thesaurus tells us that it’s ‘imagination, creativity, fancy, invention, originality, vision, speculation, make-believe, daydreaming, reverie’. It tells us that its antonyms are ‘truth and realism’.
While fantasy may not be realism as we know it, it often relates deeper truths than those we see in day-to-day life, and its realism is of the heart rather than the eyes; the thesaurus’ antonyms, quoted above, are superficial and inadequate; better antonyms would be ‘unimaginative and ordinary’.
Fantasy was once considered to be a subset of science fiction – myth, legend, fable, fairy tale; sword and sorcery; escapism – for a long time but has since become a genre in its own right. Sci-fi and fantasy may be blended or they can stand alone. Fantasy lends itself more easily to spiritual considerations and sci-fi to technological ideas but the two can be readily combined.
I enjoy colouring in detailed drawings while listening to talks, the more complex, the better; it helps me concentrate. I’ve just completed one of fantastic balloons (viewable on the LynMiller page on Facebook).
Imagine the stories you could build around these wonderful creations! How much more truth could you weave into such tales than is possible from a picture of ‘real’ balloons; whatever adventures you could relate about real balloons could easily be incorporated into a story of fantasy balloons – with much more depth and height and breadth of creativity and thoughtfulness!
Never dismiss fantasy works as merely child’s play. Imagination is the genesis of creation. And creation begets reality.